Rain for the weekend? Don’t cancel your plans!

A round of widespread morning downpours dropped over an inch of rain through the middle of Huntsville, but just like every single day this week, some got a little, some got a little, and some got zero. More of these occasional scattered thunderstorms develop through the weekend, but don’t expect a rain out!

The weekend looks hot and humid with chance of some scattered downpours here and there. Daytime highs reach the low-90s over the weekend; the heat index tops out around 93ºF to 97ºF on both afternoons.

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Peeking at the peaking Perseids: The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks this weekend, and it should be one of the best of the year! As many as 60-70 meteors per hour should be visible overnight Saturday into Sunday morning and again Sunday night into Monday morning.

The weather looks agreeable for this year’s Perseid viewing: mostly clear and quiet nights. By the way, the fact that we have a ‘New Moon’ Friday night/Saturday morning means an even better show because bright moonlight won’t wash out the small streaks of light from the meteors.

How do you best view them? Find a dark place away from city lights between midnight and about 4 AM. Give your eyes about 15 minutes to adjust to the darkness, and look to the north-northeast. Soon, you’ll start seeing the meteors!

Next week’s outlook: The pattern of daily scattered storms lingers from the weekend into the first part of the week; Monday’s chance of rain is the best we’ll have until next Friday.

Once the storms thin out, expect the heat to build quickly! Some slightly drier air does manage to slip in from the north on Tuesday and Wednesday reducing (possibly eliminating) the chance of isolated storms and keeping the heat index in check: ‘feels like’ temps only rise about 3-5 degrees above the actual air temperature.

The catch? The actual air temperature surges back to the mid-90s by the middle of the week, so whether it’s the heat index of just plain, old hot air, it’s going to be hot.

Any signs of Fall weather yet? In short, no. There are some slight ups and downs in the heat through the next 10-15 days, but there are no indications of significantly cooler-than-normal weather through the end of August. That doesn’t mean it will be extremely hot: just the typical heat of mid-to-late August.